“Anti-Israel” Remarks Cost French Radio Chief His Job

Promoting his new book “Sharon’s Wall” on the controversial separation wall being built to separate Israel from Palestinian centers of population, Menargues more than once described Israel as racist.

Speaking on LCI television on September 30, he said: “You say Israel is a democratic state, let me rapidly add that it is also a racist state …. The law of return only concerns Jews. What is the basis of Zionism? It is to make a state for the Jews.”

On another occasion he said, “What was the first ghetto on the world? It was in Venice. Who made it? The Jews themselves, in order separate themselves from the rest. Afterwards Europe put them in ghettoes.”

The separation wall has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice and in July, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on Israel to tear it down. As usual, Israel, backed by Washington, defiantly refused to abide by the ruling or the resolution.

Menargues’ remarks have earned condemnation from the French government as well as RFI journalists and Jewish groups, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The French Foreign Ministry said that Menargues’ description of Israel as racist was “unacceptable” and journalists’ unions at RFI called on the management to “assume its responsibilities.”

The vice-president of the France-Israel association Gilles William Goldnadel also weighed in, saying the remarks were made “in the context of a deep-rooted anti-Jewishness and the fact they were made by a director of RFI, the voice of France abroad, shows there is a sense of total impunity.”

Just a Country

Menargues, on the other hand, stood firm, rejecting the charges against him, saying “Israel is a country like any other and like the others it must be criticized. There is no exception in my vision of the world, no country is above international laws.”

Menargues, 57, is a Middle East specialist who has spent many years in the region. He was named to his current post, which bears the rank of deputy director-general, in July.

Israel and Jewish groups have long accused France of pursuing policies that are biased to the Arab world.

Israel’s Sharon has sparked a diplomatic row when he called on French Jews to leave France immediately, and French President Jacques Chirac hitting back by telling the hard-liner he was unwelcome in France.

The so-called anti-Semitism charge has been widely used to silence critics of Israel worldwide.

On Saturday, October 16, US President George W. Bush signed into law a controversial bill on combating global anti-Semitism.

The law commits the US State Department to documenting acts of physical violence against Jews, their property, cemeteries and places of worship abroad, as well as local governments’ responses to them and take note of instances of anti-Jewish propaganda and governments’ readiness to promote unbiased school curricula.